The Nightworld - Jack Blaine [38]
“Nah.” Zeke shakes his head at me. “Time for you and me to go get some food.”
Chapter 21
As it turns out, Zeke means it’s time to go down to street level and see what we can find in the way of supplies. I really don’t want to go back down there, but it doesn’t feel like I can say no right now. We’ve reached a sort of détente playing poker, and I want to keep the good feeling going.
“It’ll be good—we’ll see how you make yourself useful.” Zeke tosses me a baseball bat. I catch it but lean it against a couch.
“I’ll stick with this, thanks,” I say, pulling my gun out of my back pocket. I don’t mention the second gun stashed in my backpack.
He shrugs. “Doesn’t matter to me, pal. I’d leave the dog here, though, unless you want him to be somebody’s dinner.”
Tank is snoring on the larger of the two couches, full of the last of his dog food and a small piece of Twinkie I snuck him. Charlie will be so pissed if I let anything happen to him. I hate to admit it, but I agree with Zeke—he has to stay here.
I turn to Lara. “Do you mind keeping an eye on him until I’m back?” Before the words are out of my mouth, she is already fussing over Tank, smoothing his fur and making little kissy faces at him.
“Of course not. But do you guys really have to go today, Zeke? It seems like we have enough food to last until at least tomorrow.”
“Better to get it now, before somebody else finds it. With Nick helping, I can get it all back here this time.” He throws me a couple of cloth grocery bags. “We found a whole stash of cans this morning, but we didn’t have enough bags with us to get them all back here.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I pat Tank, who is awake now, on the head. He doesn’t offer to get off the couch and come with us.
Kath follows us out to the landing; I think she’s coming with us until she removes the golf club and the cloth shoved in next to it from the door handle.
“We’ve worked out a system,” she says. “Whoever is staying checks every five minutes to see if whoever left is back and needs to be let in. Lara and I will keep checking until you’re back safe.”
“I came up with that. Keeps the hoodlums locked out.” Zeke looks pretty proud.
“Be careful,” says Kath. She says it to both of us, but her gaze lingers on Zeke. He nods, barely looking at her.
We start down the stairwell. Zeke makes a big deal of holding his gun in front of him and acting like he’s going to shoot anything that appears around the next corner. I realize I must have looked at least that dumb coming up these stairs. Our footsteps echo, and I hope that we would hear anyone else’s as clearly.
“You must be in great shape, Zeke. I thought these were going to kill me on the way up.”
He doesn’t look back at me. He goes down another two flights before he stops and turns to face me. “Listen, I don’t like the fact that you’re here. But you are, and according to Lara, you’re okay. Here’s a couple of things you need to know, though.” He leans in toward me until he’s about a foot from my face. I think I’m supposed to be intimidated.
“One. Don’t get funny with Lara. She’s been through a lot of shit. She doesn’t need you messing with her.”
I don’t say anything.
“Two. If you get stupid down there and get yourself in trouble, don’t expect me to risk my ass for you. I won’t expect it from you, either.”
He steps back. It’s like he’s waiting for me to crumble into a spineless heap or something. I think he’s a little disappointed when I don’t.
“Anything else?” I’m starting to think I could get really sick of this guy.
He shakes his head. “Nada.”
We go past the lobby level to the garage. Zeke presses his ear to the door before he opens it a crack. When he’s satisfied the coast is clear, he motions for me to follow him. We run through the garage, each pointing our guns in front of us. At first I feel a little silly, like we’re playing at cops and robbers, but that disappears the instant we see our first thug.
We take him by surprise. He’s coming down the ramp that leads to the street, looking back over his shoulder, so he doesn